Converting existing installations (from old system)

All basic node information, and the ability to continue handling node registrations from old system configurations
(at least for some period) is fully and automatically supported in the current system. However, if you do not sign up for
an account on the new system, and migrate your nodes within a period of time (before 1/31/2011), the database will be
purged of un-claimed (un-migrated) nodes and you will no longer be eligible to claim your old node number(s).

So, if initially, you just want to get your system(s) up and running really quickly, all you have to do is
convert your iax.conf file (see below). However, we recommend taking the time immediately
to properly get set up on the new system.

To get set up on the new system you must do the following:

Register as a new user. The procedure is accomplished from a link on the main page of this website.
This requires the exchange of a couple pieces of email, and callsign validation by the validation team (the process,
therefore, does not happen in real-time).

Once you have been validated as a new user, you must set yourself up as a 'sysop' (system operator). This is
accomplished by logging in to the Portal, and enabling this feature via 'Account Settings -> Account Profile', and
log out, and log back into the system for this change to take effect.

You must now create a Server entry for each of your Servers. Remember, a Server refers to the actual hardware system (the
actual computer system) on which your Allstar Node(s) is/are implemented. So, for each of your physical systems, you need to create
a Server under your username. Once you have done so, you may then associate Nodes with each Server.

If you already had assigned node numbers under the old system, you must go through a process called 'Node Migration'
(see below). For each previously assigned node, you must 'Migrate' it to the desired newly created
Server entry, so that each Server has its Nodes properly associated to it. This will allow for proper configurability of these Nodes
in the new system, and will ensure that they do not get purged when the purging time comes.

Once all your Nodes are 'Migrated', your transition to the new system is complete. Your 'Migrated' nodes default to
being 'manually configured', meaning that you provide manually-generated configuration for these nodes, on the Server, and that
the Portal is not responsible for generating coniguration for them (which, of course, was the only way to do it on the old
system). If you wish to change your nodes to server-configured, then you need to modify all your Node settings (and probably
some Server settings also) to reflect your desired configuration. Note: not all node configurations (such as remote base) are
supported by the Portal-Generated configurations. For situations such as these, you must use "manual configuration" and maintain
the configurations for these yourself.

If you wish to use the facilities of the new Portal on your old configuration(s), you must upgrade to the latest version
of Asterisk/app_rpt, and manually add the configuration file entries to access these new features (See 'Manual Coniguration'
unser 'Server' when logged in to the Portal).

Node Migration (from old system)

If you had node(s) assigned to you on the old system, you may easily (and must) "Migrate" them onto
the new Portal system.

On this Portal, you need to create server(s) that correspond with computer systems running Asterisk/app_rpt. Then
for each server, you "migrate" the nodes from the old system that correspond to the newly created server(s) by using
the "Node Migration" tab from the "Nodes" tab at the top of the page. You select the server that you wish the node to
be associated with, enter the node number, and its node password from the old system. If all the information is correct,
the Portal associates that node with the server you specified.

Each migrated node defaults to a configuration of 'register only', which means that the node entry is there but
the Portal is not respible for, and will not generate or download any configuration information about this particular node.
If you wish the Portal to generate the configuration for this node, you need to enter the appropriate configuration information
for the node, and change its type to whatever is appropriate (change it from 'Register Only'). Also, the node
defaults to having its 'Access Settings' (such as allowing access to the Web Transceiver, Phone Portal, etc.) default to
'Disabled'. If you configure your node to support these features, you must 'Enable' them.

If you have forgotten either your node password(s) or node number(s) from the old system,
please use This link to see the old list of nodes and have the ability to
have your old password emailed to you.

Converting iax.conf file (from old system)

The /etc/asterisk/iax.conf file contains, amongst other things, statements that allow your Server to register
its nodes with the Allstar Link system. In the old system, the file contained node number references with an 'A' prepended to the
node number. The current (new) system, does not require that, nor does it alow for that. As a result, to use a configuration
that was operational on the old system, you must remove all the 'A' characters in the register statements. We provide
a simple shell script that takes care of that for you (if you do not wish to edit the file manually).

sh iaxold2new.sh

in the directory in which you downloaded it.

Telephone Portal (including public SIP access)

The telephone portal allows users of the AllStar Link Network access via telephone to talk on, use, and control
participating Nodes on the network. In addition, if desired, it gives users (or non-users as configured) access to "Reverse
Autopatch" functionality on a Node. The telephone numbers of the AllStar Link Telephone Portal are as follows:

+1 763 2300000

United States

+1 559 2557827

United States (Alternate # for the time being)

+61 2 91916355

Australia

+64 9 9250480

New Zealand

+34 956 922108

Spain

First you dial the number for the Telephone Portal (see above). It will ask you to enter the desired Node number to which you wish to connect, followed
by the pound sign. Please do so. If both Node access and Reverse autopatch access is enabled for the specifyed node,
the system will prompt you to enter 1 for Node access, or 2 for Reverse Autopatch access. If only one of these is enabled
it will go directly to the processing for that type of access.

Node (System Use/Control) Access

You will then be prompted to enter your 10 digit AllStar User Security PIN. Please do so. Afterwards, the system will prompt you
to enter 1 for "Voice Operated" access, and 2 for "Function Operated" access.

"Voice Operated" access used the presence of your voice (or any other noises picked up by the microphone on your telephone
instrument) to determine when to make the connected node "transmit". This mode is not recommended in noisy locations.

"Function Operated" acess uses DTMF sequences to indicate to the connected node whether you wish to transmit or not. To
indicate to transmit (like pressing a push-to-talk button on a conventional radio), enter the DTMF sequenc *99. To not transmit
any more (like letting up a push-to-talk button on a conventional radio), enter the DTMF '#' (pound) key.

Reverse Autopatch Access

Reverse Autopatch access allows a caller (eiter with or without an AllStar Link user ID, selectible by configuration) to cause
a Node to announce their presence (while on hold) and if a user of the Node wishes, may connect to call onto the Node. If the
Node is configured to require use by a valid AllStar Link user, then the user is prompted to enter their AllStar User Security PIN
before connecting then to the Node.

Access from SIP devices

The Telephone Portal is also publically available from any SIP device on the Internet. Please connect to the
SIP Telephone Portal using the follwing connection information:

IP Address:

sip.allstarlink.org (67.215.233.178)

Username:

1

Password:

allstar

codec:

G711 Ulaw

DTMF:

RFC2833 (If applicable)

If you wish the SIP Telephone Portal to act exactly like the standard Phone Portal (where it asks you to enter the
node number to which you wish to connect), use destination extension '0'. If you wish to 'pre-select' the destination
node number, then send the desired node number as the destination extension. It is not necessary to register to use
this service (if your SIP device is capable of placing calls without registering), but since most SIP clients
feel that they MUST register, the ability is provided.

Upgrading Asterisk to latest (SVN) version

If you are using a brand-new current version of ACID or Limey Linux (that was released after the
implementation of this new Portal) you are already upgraded sufficiently. If not ...

For Pickle (BeagleBoard) Linux:

Initial Portal-Generated Configuration Download

This only applies to servers that are set to have the Portal generate configuration files for them.

In order to configure your server to allow the Portal to generate configuration files for the server, you first
must download a local configuration shell script and execute it. Please do the following:

The script will ask you to enter your Allstar user information, give you a list of servers to download (if you have more
then one under your username), and then confirm that you wish to download the configuration. After this is run, please
restart Asterisk and then any subsequent configuration changes may be requested to be downloaded via the Portal.

The 1.0.9 version of Limey Linux is missing a file that allows curl to operate
properly with HTTPS URLs. You may get the following error:

If so, to fix this you need to do the following:

Previous versions of Limey Linux (1.0.8 and below) do not support curl at all.
If you are running such a version, you must upgrade to the current version,
since curl support is necessary for interaction with the Allstar Link Portal.

Change In Naming Convention For USB Devices

For servers configured by this Portal, there has been a change in the 'traditional'
naming convention for USB devices under chan_usbradio. Traditionaly, the first USB device
was named usb and the next one was usb1 and the next usb2 and so on.
For systems currently configured and those continuing to be manually configured, the
USB devices can continue to be named in the 'traditional' way (or any other way you like).
The Portal names the USB devices according to the node they are connected to. For example,
node 1999 would have device usb1999 asociated to it. That way there is no confusion
as to what is associated with what node.

If you are changing from a 'traditional' configuration to a Portal-generated configuration,
you might want to consider re-naming the old /etc/asterisk/usbradio_tune_usb[XXX].conf files to the new
device numbers, so that you dont have to re-tune the USB devices under the new configuration.

When Asterisk starts, the default USB device (as far as the CLI radio commands are concerned)
is the first one in the list in /etc/asterisk/usbradio.conf. In Portal-generated configurations,
this should be the one for the lowest node number on the server.

Please also see the Partners Page for some really useful products pertaining to this technology